Gov. Mitt Romney attended a fundraiser in California last night, where he picked up the official endorsement of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among others. Rice has been mentioned as a possible Vice-Presidential running mate for Romney. A “pool report” from reporters at the event write the following about remarks made by Rice last night:

“It’s a delight to see so many friends…I’ve now been out of Washington for over three years…how much fun it is when you know you could be in Washington, but you’re here. My life has changed a lot. Now, I get up in the morning and I read the newspaper and I say…isn’t that interesting?
“Because I’m no longer responsible for what’s in it.”

“We care about the future of this country, and the future of our world,’’ she said, and I’m “delighted to join so many friends here in supporting, and in my case, endorsing, Gov. Mitt Romney for President of the United States.”

“Today, more than ever, we need U.S. leadership to affirm that the future belongs to free markets and free peoples.” .

“To regain that leadership, we’ve got to first and foremost defend the country,’’ she said. After 911, the country was safe because “it was not because the terrorists weren’t trying, it was because of the vigilance…because men and women volunteer to defend us at the front lines of freedom, and we owe them our eternal gratitude.”

More Rice: “We have to defend the country, not just from strength and power, but from a sense of values of who we are,’’ she said. “Friends, who just want to know, that when the chips are down, we are going to be there for them….and that indeed we know the difference between friend and foe.”

More Rice:

“The POTUS has to understand that the American people have a view…and that our leadership can not be (reduced to) “the lowest common denominator postions.”

“The only thing the American people dislike more” than weak leadership, she said, “is no leadership at all.”

America’s leadership “is craved in the world, and Gov. Romney, you can bring it back,’’ she said to applause. . . . Read More